Lauren Stapp ushers babies into the world with a personal touch

BARSTOW — Everywhere Lauren Stapp goes in Barstow, she runs into people she has known since birth, literally.

Stapp has helped to usher hundreds of babies into the world during her 25-year nursing career caring for women and babies during pregnancy and childbirth and has a hard time picking a favorite birthing story.

She has helped deliver triplets who were born weighing under two pounds, a baby that began to make an unexpected arrival when its mother was on a Greyhound bus en route from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Last Wednesday, Stapp helped her daughter’s best friend deliver a baby boy. She helped her niece when she gave birth in November.

“They’re all special to me, because bringing a new baby into the world is always special,” Stapp said.

Stapp’s patients at Barstow Community Hospital think that she is special, too. After the hospital asked former patients to submit their picks for favorite nurse, Stapp was awarded the Patient’s Choice Award at a hospital ceremony on May 6.

Along with the award, Stapp recently took on a new level of responsibility at the hospital as manager of the OB unit. Nurse Florence Cook, former manager of the hospital’s OB unit, turned over the reins to Stapp on May 1.

After 43 years with the hospital, 36 of them spent as OB unit manager, Cook wanted to take a step back in her responsibility, and she saw Stapp as an ideal successor.

“It was time for nice, fresh blood like Lauren to take over,” she said.

Cook will continue to work as a nurse in the unit and help Stapp learn the ropes in her new position. In the time that she has worked with Stapp, Cook said she was impressed by Stapp’s personal touch with the patients.

“She’s very caring to the families,” Cook said. “Especially if there’s a loss or something like that, she’s very empathetic.”

Stapp helped the OB unit develop a bereavement process in which they give a box of mementos to families of babies who die, including locks of hair, pictures and baby clothes.

“You feel kind of helpless, like, ‘What can we do?’ And there’s not much you can do, so I wanted to show the families that we care,” Stapp said.

Even for mothers who give birth to a healthy baby, childbirth can be a scary prospect. Stapp said she tries to give each woman individual attention and reassurance.

“You can take all the classes and read all the books, but it doesn’t really prepare you for labor,” she said.

She helped prepare Kaitlyn Owens, who gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Taryn at Barstow Community Hospital on Thursday. Owens credited Stapp with helping the whole process go more smoothly.

“She was awesome,” Owens said.

Although Owens was not a first-time mom, she was nervous about the delivery. Owen

s gave birth to her first daughter in Germany, where she and her husband were civilian workers with the U.S. Army. Owens’ husband and step-son were also born in Germany, where the approach to childbirth is more natural, using acupuncture and herbs to relieve the pain rather than medication, Owens said. The family wanted to have an experience as close to that as possible in Barstow.

“I talked to Lauren ahead of time about what I wanted and what my previous experience was, so she worked with me to have it as natural as possible,” Owens said.

Although the hospital could not give Owens acupuncture, they were able to compromise on issues like administering pain medication. After her talks with Stapp before the delivery, Owens said she was excited to find that Stapp would be working when she gave birth.

Stapp, who has lived in Barstow since the fifth grade, said nursing was a natural career choice for her.

“Since I was a little girl I always wanted to take care of people,” she said.

She started as a medical-surgical nurse at Barstow Community Hospital, then worked for eight years with a private OB doctor before returning to the OB unit at Barstow Community Hospital. Outside of the hospital, Stapp teaches classes at Victor Valley College.

Stapp said she was humbled by the recognition she received with the Patients Choice Award.

“I don’t expect anything special for what I do, really,” she said.

The bonds she forms with patients are one of her favorite parts of the job, Stapp said.

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(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com